Welcome & Acknowledgements

Dear Members, Delegates, Panellists and Friends,

Welcome to ACGA’s 24th annual conference, which we have rebranded as “The Asia Corporate Governance Summit”. We return to Seoul after our last conference here in 2013. Korea is probably the most apt market to have a corporate governance conference this year. With the election in June bringing in a new President and cabinet, CG reform has picked up pace notably in recent months with amendments to the Commercial Code, new leadership at the financial agencies and regulatory authorities. Korea launched the Value Up plan last year: one of the main questions going forward is how this plan evolves with the new government and regulatory leadership. To set the scene, we are very pleased to have as our keynote speaker, the Chairman of the KOSPI 5,000 Special Committee, MP Oh Gi-Hyoung. This will be followed by our first panel discussing Value Up style programmes across the region, with panellists from Japan and China joining officials from Korea.



The theme of this year’s conference, “From Compliance to Value Creation: A new era in Asia”, is especially relevant at this juncture for Asian markets. Regulators across the region are calling on company boards to reassess their role. For decades, in most of Asia, corporate governance has been seen as essentially following regulations, i.e. compliance. However, ACGA’s report “Value Up, Asia” issued in May highlights that lacklustre market performance and poor valuations make urgent better returns for both local as well as global investors. Japan was the first to set out its Action Program in 2023. With Korea, as well as China, Taiwan and also Thailand, we are now seeing regulators across the region urging company boards to place greater emphasis on their role for delivering shareholder value. Value Up style programmes are required if the capital markets are to serve their primary function of being a source of capital for issuers and returns for investors, the latter especially urgent with ageing demographics in the region.

This year’s conference has seven plenaries and six workshops over two days. The panel discussions range from AI, corruption and fraud, climate governance, geopolitics, the shift from public to private markets, and challenges for family-controlled companies. Meanwhile the six workshop sessions will discuss success factors for Value Up style programmes, activism in Asian markets, due diligence on supply chains, shareholder rights at AGMs, whistleblowing, diversity and human capital. With 62 speakers from 10 countries, this ACGA conference will, like others before it, give much to chew on. With most of our speakers being active practitioners, we expect there will be many practical ideas to take home!



A key element of being able to organise this event is the invaluable support of our sponsors. We would like to thank the following organisations for their generosity:

We are also grateful for the support of Korea Exchange for being a supporting organisation, the Korean Corporate Governance Forum for their invaluable guidance, and the CFA Institute for publicising the conference. It was also a real help to have our Korea Working Group assist on various events. We thank YK Park, our departing Co-Chair of the Korea Working Group, for the tremendous role she has played at ACGA; Su Sang Yoon now has as the sole responsibility for chairing the WG. I would like to thank all members of the ACGA Secretariat for the tremendous effort to bring this year’s conference to a successful fruition. Our appreciation also goes to the ACGA Council, for support and guidance relating to this event.



Finally, I would like to express our gratitude to all our speakers and delegates. With your efforts and sharing your viewpoints, this will be a truly memorable and valuable event for all. Thank you and we wish all participants a very fruitful conference!

Amar Gill
Secretary General